Sunday  7 September 2003

After breakfast we take the subway to Harlem, once the most infamous black district of  New York, situated roughly between 116 and 141e street. We have booked a Harlem Gospel Tour withj Harlem Heritage Tours, an original  Harlem outfit that organises quite a few themed walking and bus tours in this district. We meet our guide on at 116 Street and Malcolm X Boulevard.  Neil Schoemaker lives in the area and knows everything and everyone around here, or so it seems. He first takes us to the  Memorial Baptist Church, where we attend a service. There is a lot of singing by a magnificent choir and the congregation. On the one hand we feel a bit intruding on something personal and private. On the other hand we feel welcome. The ministers do their utmost to stress this point. One item of the service is "welcome to the visitors". The ministers addresses the visitors, who are grouped together on one side of the church and calls the congregation to welcome us visitors personally. Then all the church goers come up to us to shake hands and welcome us to their church. It feels very special. The service continues with prayers and song. After an hour the service is over for us and we are ushered out of the church. The congregation will continue for another two hours without us. 

We are on our way with Neil for a walk through Harlem. Neil explains us the history of Harlem. It started out as a Dutch settlement called  Nieuw Haarlem. In the beginning Haarlem was quite a journey from New York city. The city, however, came closer and closer and when the railways connected Harlem with downtown, the better off immigrants (mostly German Jews) started moving here and building pretty brownstone town houses. They were followed by East European Jews driven away from downtown by the rising costs of housing. The arrival of the subway should have accelerated that process, but this did not happen. Houses were built but the tenants and buyers did not come. The vacuum was filled by black tenants, driven out of the downtown slums by high rents. The Jewish inhabitants of Harlem saw this as a reason for moving on and that was when Harlem became a black area.   

De town houses are still there to gaze at in Harlem. Over the years they were divided into smaller units and rented out against low rents to poor blacks. After a cultural peak in the 1920s and 30s - the days of the Jazz clubs - Harlem fell into decline after the depression and the Second World War. Poverty, unemployment, crime became the norm in Harlem. Shops, however remained white and mostly Jewish owned, and blacks had a hard time getting hired there. This situation without much perspective led to riots which triggered the city government into action, sponsoring housing and economic projects. The efforts by the city, but also by the churches and mosques, have resulted in a Harlem renaissance. Neglected houses - of good technical quality - were renovated and sold off as apartments. Harlem is starting to become a sought after neighbourhood to live and where apartments are still relatively affordable compared with areas downtown. This does not only mean that the area looks better, but also the house prices are rising and it is becoming increasingly difficult for Harlem natives to afford a place to live here.  

On 116th Street we see the Masjid Malcolm Shabazz mosque. From this mosque Malcolm X  started preaching his musim resistance against white oppression. and showing his aversion against the passiveness of black Christian leaders. In 117th St walk along the Malcolm Shabazz Gardens a housing project with good middle class houses, replacing derelict brown stones. On 5th Avenue we see the  Baptist Temple Church, based in what once was a Synagogue, a fact of which its architecture bears good witness. The  Corinthian Baptist Church is based in a former cinema.  On 118th Street we can still see the neon signs of the former   Minton's Playhouse, based at the Cecil Hotel. It is the birth place of Bebop, a precursor of improvising Jazz. In the 1940s people like  Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and John Coltraine performed here in jam sessions. The present owner of the hotel has plans to reopen the Playhouse again. On Malcolm X Blvd (between 118 & 119 Street) Neil lets us meet an example of a new small Harlem entrepreneur, of which there are lot these days in Harlem. Harlemade is shop with applied art like T-shirts, lamps, photos etc. We cannot resist buying something. We then walk on to the Mount Morris Historic District.  A neighbourhood started at the beginning of the 20th century and is now listed as a landmark district. The district has been renovated and restored very nicely and has a lot of churches, just like anywhere else in Harlem. Lots of beautiful brownstone houses, which have been renovated into handsome appartments.  We end up at the corner of Lennox Avenue and 125th Street. 125th Street is the main artery of Harlem. The renaissance of Harlem is best visible here. Lots of shops, restaurants and theaters and even a Starbucks, a major proof that Harlem is becoming mainstream. Former president Clinton has chosen this spot for his post-presidential office. We land at the  Lennox Lounge, a  bar and jazz club in a magnificent Art Deco interior. We have a drink here and Neil concludes the informative tour. 

Now its time for lunch. Neil guides us to an address for some Soul Food: Sylvia's on Malcolm X Blvd. It is THE address for the typical African American cuisine of Harlem and a landmark in its own right.  Ever since 1962 Sylvia Wood and her family runs this  restaurant and it has been a great success. Sylvia has beside the restaurant a line of cook books, a range of food products and even a line of hair products! It unbelievably busy on Sunday and there is a long line waiting to be seated, but Neil has his connections and helps us jumping the queue. We are at  a table in not time at all. We have fine and hearty lunch, listening to some good gospel music. 

After  Harlem it is now time for another New York Sunday outing:  Central Park. This giant green lung of the city was created after the city reluctantly bought the 885 acres of land for the park. The park, at the time, was still out of town. The land was a swampy area in which some 1500 homeless lived in shanty huts. They were forced out and  Fredrick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux created their great Landscape Styled park, which makes the impression of being a forest in the middle of town. It was meant as a park for the people. But the people did not have enough free time to come here. Times have changed though. Sundays in the park are very busy with walking, skating and jogging people.  We even see a roller disco. We start at "Strawberry Fields" on the west side of the the park and via the Bethesda fountain we reach  The Lake. - very  popular -where you can rent a rowing boat at  Loeb's Boat House. We continue across a bridge toward the  rough part called the Rambles. Via the Swedish Cottage we walk to Central Park West where we catch the subway back home. 

At night we eat on Eighth Avenue at 18th&8th, a good and gay , after which we down some cocktails in the  scene of 8th Avenue.

Monday 7 September 2003

We have breakfast with our host Charles at Austin's - now for the last time. After breakfast we do some shopping around  Herald Square. Again we end up at Macy's and keep buying and buying....

After a simple lunch we pack our bags and head for the Airport. Our flight leaves on tme for Amsterdam where we arrive around 5.30am (!). It takes a while before our suit cases come out on the belt and we can catch our train home.